This Day In Classic Rock

It was this morning in 1967 that John Lennon sang “Good Morning Good Morning” on Sgt. Pepper at Abbey Road studio this morning. Also this morning, it was Paul not George, who laid down that blistering punk rock prototype guitar solo this morning. John’s inspiration for the segment? A breakfast cereal commercial. Good morning! It was also John’s idea to end it with animal noises, and he specified that each subsequent animal be capable of eating the previous one this morning.

It was today in 1968 that the BBC recorded another failure of socialism: A show called The Sound Of Change that would air in September with obvious losers Pink Floyd, The Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and no commercials.

In 1973 Led Zeppelin released Houses of the Holy, a reference not to any kind of church but the concert halls where they gathered in holy communion with their audience. At that point the Houes of the Holy in our neck of the woods included The Seattle Center Mercer Arena, the Greenlake Aqua Theatre (Home of the Water Follies!), Gold Creek Park in Woodinville, the Paramount, and the Seattle Center Coliseum 3 times. They would play there three more times, and who can forget the 1977 Kingdome echo-chamber?

It was tonight in 1976 that Genesis began their first North American tour without Peter Gabriel, with drummer Phil Collins taking over as lead vocalist. It wasn’t as good, though they would eventually sell far more records that they did with Gabriel.

It was today in 1982 that David Crosby was arrested after crashing his car on the San Diego Highway. The arresting officer found cocaine and a pistol, and when he asked why he carried the gun, Crosby’s reply was, “John Lennon.”

Tonight in 1992, Over a $100,000 worth of damage was caused at The Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in Southern California, when Ozzy Osbourne invited the first two rows of the audience on stage. Several other rows took up the offer and the band was forced to flee.

In court in 2000, Jimmy Page accepted substantial undisclosed libel damages from Ministry magazine which claimed he had caused or contributed to the death of his Led Zeppelin bandmate John Bonham. Page’s lawyer told the Judge that the article in Ministry magazine printed in 1999 claimed Pagey was more concerned with keeping vomit off his bed than saving his friend’s life, and that he stood over him wearing Satanist robes and performing a useless spell.

Rock and Roll Birthdays

John Evan, keyboardist of Jethro Tull is 64

and Steve Turner, lead guitarist for Seattle’s own Mudhoney, the Monkeywrench, Green River, and the self-proclaimed world’s worst band, Mr. Epp and the Calculations is 47.